Auto theft is a problem in the United States reaching epidemic proportions. Auto theft costs the American public countless dollars in damages. Vehicles are stolen and shipped off to remote destinations to be resold or taken to "chop shops" to be striped to their parts and then the parts are resold. Other vehicles are stolen by thrill seekers to be used for joy riding and thereafter the vehicle set ablaze or otherwise severely damaged to destroy any evidence of the identity of the thief.
Many anti-theft devices have been conceived in order to combat this serious problem. However, none of the inventions conceived to date have the particular combination of features as the Bulldog anti-theft system.
Many common inventions make use of sensors to detect either door openings or car vibrations. Upon detection of an adverse event, these inventions attract attention to the compromised vehicle by making noise such as sounding an alarm or the vehicle's horn, and flashing the lights of the vehicle. This noise being intended to frighten the would-be thief away.
Other inventions are designed to forcefully lock the steering mechanism into place thereby preventing the vehicle from being operative. These inventions, although having some effect, are easily by-passable by an enterprising thief.
Inventions which draw attention to the vehicle can be defeated simply by disconnecting the power source of the alarm by disconnecting the car's battery. Thereafter, the alarm can be disconnected or the horn disabled and the thief is free to reconnect the battery and pursue his craft.
The proliferation of false alarms has made the public largely immune to the noise generated from these alarms thereby permitting the thief to accomplish his task with minimal attention.
The steering disabling invention as well as the noise making invention are unable to prevent the vehicle from being towed away. A thief can simply arrive by tow truck, pick up his intended booty and haul it off rendering the above theft prevention inventions impotent.
The present invention overcomes the above short comings. The present invention is designed to set the vehicle's brakes into a locked position thereby making the vehicle impossible to drive or tow. The present invention can also be used in conjunction with the standard noise making inventions for added security.
Various braking locking inventions have already been proposed, for instance Baruch, U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,362. However the below-cited inventions suffer from one or both of two short comings. Many of the current brake locking inventions are of a complex design and require a substantial reworking of the vehicle's hydraulic brake system to install.
Other inventions can be compromised by simply disconnecting the vehicle's power source. These inventions are designed so that if power is lost during vehicle operation the brakes are automatically engaged creating an immense safety concern.
Therefore it is an object of the present invention to create a vehicle anti-theft system whereby the invention renders the vehicle non-operational and non-towable.
It is a further object of the present invention to create a vehicle anti-theft system which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture and install.
It is a further object of the present invention to create a vehicle anti-theft system that can only be disabled by authorized personnel and that will not engage the vehicle's brakes during a catastrophic power lost during normal vehicle operation.